Consumers demand good, healthy, easy-to-peel Italian fruit

"Consumers require fruit to have three characteristics - it must taste good, be healthy and it must be easy to eat. Clementines have all that, so sales are increasing year after year. If to this we add the fact that they are of Italian origin, then they are the perfect fruit," explained Maurizio Nasato (in the photo below), domestic purchasing manager for Gruppo Pam, during a convention organised by AOP Armonia.

The first topic Nasato tackled during his speech was reliability - from packaging to quality standards. "Gruppo Pam processes orders with a precision of 98%, so an order arriving at 11 am is ready 7 am the next day. Of 400 packets processed, 390 comply with the standards required. To reach these objectives, one needs reliable partners. We work with 200 companies, including AOP Armonia."

"I started working in retail in 1974 and innovation has sped up in the last ten years. Of course, when talking about innovation, one must talk about packaging too. Often packaging looks good but, in our line of work, it is the product that must be the true protagonist."

Another topic was varietal innovation. "Consumption has changed a lot over the past few years. There are fruits that are considered old-fashioned, such as pears and tangerines. Pomegranates, soft fruit and seedless grapes are getting more popular."

Last but not least, certifications. "A large company like ours does not need bad publicity - like that provided by residues found on fruit and vegetables, or by management that is not compliant with regulations. So it is very important that our partnerships are based on quality certifications."

Italian consumers require domestic produce
"Over the past few weeks, Gruppo Pam has been selling citrus fruit from Argentina and South Africa. Italian production is not helping us and we can only get produce from the southern hemisphere. Our customer assistance service is drowning in requests for Italian products, people want to know why only foreign lemons and oranges are available."

According to Nasato, consumers and clients do not always understand the seasonality of certain products. "Italian yellow lemons, for example, are not available throughout the year. Even though Verdello lemons are available in summer, the fact that they are green is enough to make people think they are foreign. Italians, in fact, tend to prefer yellow juicy lemons, which they identify as domestic product."

As for clementines, "consumers are not yet capable of distinguishing the various cultivars. They just want clementines that are easy to peel, sweet and that last for a few days. Therefore, when selecting a variety, these are the parameters we try to meet."